Emily Mai/Cronkite News
Pets available at the Maricopa County Animal Care and Control West Valley Animal Care Center in Phoenix on Jan. 22, 2024.
This weekend, Maricopa County animal shelters are waiving fees for all dogs. The “Empty the Shelters” event comes as the locations face capacity issues.
The overcrowding means the shelter divided the kennels into two sections, with half of those being indoors and the others outdoors.
“The dogs that are on the outside have swamp coolers, fans and misting systems blowing on them because obviously it’s hot outside and this is just not an ideal time of year for this to happen,” Kim Powell is with Maricopa County Animal Care and Control.
Dogs at the shelter sometimes arrive because of changes to people’s living conditions. Powell says capacity issues have been present outside of the summer season.
“It does tend to happen more in the summer but nationwide, shelters have been experiencing overcapacity for the last year. It never really slowed down like it normally does in the winter but in the summer, we do see more dogs coming in for a number of reasons,” she said.
Powell says fees are also waived for pets’ spaying and neutering, microchips and vaccines.
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